Publishing Pro-Hamas Propaganda Is Protected by First Amendment
From Judge Tiffany Cartwright (W.D. Wash.) in Friday’s Jan v. People Media Project:
Plaintiff Almog Meir Jan is an Israeli citizen who was kidnapped on October 7 and held hostage by Hamas operative Abdallah Aljamal before being rescued by the Israel Defense Forces…. Jan alleges that Defendants employed and compensated Aljamal as a journalist and provided him a U.S.-based platform to publish articles supporting Hamas. Jan asserts that through these actions, Defendants aided and abetted his kidnapping and imprisonment as well as aided and abetted terrorism in violation of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), 28 U.S.C. § 1350.
The court rejected the claims based on payment to Aljamal, for reasons I’ll note in a separate post. But here is the court’s explanation for rejecting the claims based on publishing pro-Hamas propaganda:
Jan alleges that by publishing Aljamal’s articles, Defendants gave him a “platform to write and disseminate Hamas propaganda,” aiding and abetting Hamas by garnering sympathy and attracting support for its cause….
“The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment—’Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech’—can serve as a defense in … tort suits.” Snyder v. Phelps (2011). Here, as in Snyder v. Phelps, whether the First Amendment prohibits holding Defendants liable for their articles turns largely on (1) whether their speech is of public concern, and (2) whether their speech is limited to theoretical political advocacy, rather than speech meant to incite or produce unlawful activity. See Snyder; Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)….
The Court [in Brandenburg] explained that “the mere abstract teaching of the moral propriety or even moral necessity for a resort to force and violence, is not the
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